Many unhappy with decision on gay Boy Scouts

May 24, 2013
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Sandy Rakowski holds some of the badges her 14 year-old son, James, has earned as a Boy Scout on March 27, 2013. Rakowski feels the ban on homosexuals in the Boy Scouts is wrong. / Jennifer Corbett, The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal

by Mike Chalmers, USA TODAY

by Mike Chalmers, USA TODAY

WILMINGTON, Del. -- The Boy Scouts of America's decision Thursday to open its ranks to gay youths but not gay leaders has all the markings of a fiercely contested compromise: It disappointed almost everyone.

Sandy Rakowski of Elsmere, Del., whose son is a Scout, wanted the ban lifted completely.

"It's a step. That's what counts. Sometimes you have to take small concessions," Rakowski said.

But Terry Murphy of Newark, Del., who was an Eagle Scout and longtime adult leader, wanted the ban left in place.

"I am disappointed that the Boy Scouts have given in to politically correct pressure," Murphy wrote in an email. "The organization is and should be all about boys developing into men and not about sexual orientation."

The new policy will have little practical impact, said Beatrice Polk of Newark, a troop volunteer and longtime member of the Del-Mar-Va Council executive board, which covers the Delmarva Peninsula. Most troops have long operated under an unofficial "don't ask, don't tell" membership policy, though they were less accepting of gay leaders, she said.

"That's kind of how it was all along," Polk said. "I don't think it ever was about the kids. It's always been about the leaders."

Polk said she hoped the Scouts would have let each sponsoring organization decide whether to allow gay members and leaders. The BSA executive committee suggested such a compromise in January, but it won little praise.

Instead, the BSA surveyed leaders, parents and supporters this spring, a process that led to the recommendation that was enacted Thursday.

Of the roughly 1,400 voting members of the BSA's National Council who cast ballots, 61 percent supported the proposal drafted by the governing Executive Committee. The policy change takes effect Jan. 1.

"While people have different opinions about this policy, we can all agree that kids are better off when they are in Scouting," the BSA said after announcing the results at the council's annual meeting near Dallas.

The new policy will leave gay Scouts in "limbo land" because they're accepted as members but will not be able to carry on as leaders, said Glenn Simmonds, a former scoutmaster who lives in New London, Pa.

"It's a shame if young men reach Eagle and then are told to go away," Simmonds said. "The topic, I'm sure, is not settled."

Indeed, liberal Scout leaders - while supporting the proposal to accept gay youth - have made clear they want the ban on gay adults lifted as well.

In contrast, conservatives with the Scouts - including some churches that sponsor Scout units - wanted to continue excluding gay youths, in some cases threatening to defect if the ban were lifted.

"We are deeply saddened," said Frank Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's executive committee, after learning of the result. "Homosexual behavior is incompatible with the principles enshrined in the Scout oath and Scout law."

The Assemblies of God, another conservative denomination, said the policy change "will lead to a mass exodus from the Boy Scout program."

The result was welcomed by many gay-rights groups, which joined in the call for an end to the ban on gay adults.

"I'm so proud of how far we've come, but until there's a place for everyone in Scouting, my work will continue," said Jennifer Tyrrell, whose ouster as a Cub Scout den leader in Ohio because she is lesbian launched a national protest movement.

The simmering dispute has taken its toll elsewhere, too.

After the 2000 U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the Scouts' right to set membership standards, the United Way of Delaware rewrote its funding policy so that agencies could not discriminate against members based on sexual orientation. While some United Way donors began specifically excluding the Scouts from their donations, others gave more money to the group.

Several Delaware churches have cut ties with the Scout troops they sponsored. Most recently, Silverside Church in Brandywine Hundred told Troop 70, which it had sponsored for 40 years, to find a new sponsor. Two church members left over the dispute, and the troop is now sponsored by Saints Peter and Paul Ukranian Orthodox Church in Holly Oak.

Of the more than 100,000 Scouting units in the U.S., 70 percent are chartered by religious institutions.

Those include liberal churches opposed to any ban on gays. But some of the largest sponsors are relatively conservative denominations that have previously supported the broad ban - notably the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Southern Baptist churches.

Chalmers also reports for The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal; contributing: The Associated Press